We met up with Chris’s parents in Phnom Penh and enjoyed exploring some of the city with them for a few days. Not a city we loved, but the main place to really understand the harrowing history here in the well done Killing Fields and S21 Prison museums.
Day 147: It’s a long way to Phnom Penh
The morning was pretty smooth. The taxi to Sisophon/Banteay Meanchey was a little late, but that gave us time to grab some bread at the market for breakfast on the bus. The bus itself left within half an hour of it’s scheduled time (we thought for a moment that it was leaving on time, but all it did was reverse 10m up the road for some reason then wait again!). There were only us and one other waiting for the bus at the station, but it arrived with plenty of people on it, and some seemed to have boarded from the spot 10m down the road rather than where we were. No idea how this works! We’re certainly the only falang (white people) on board again!
Certainly not a UK bus – a monk got on with seemingly two logs, and people brought massive sacks, which filled the aisles. They just make a new floor with the sacks…
We finally departed about 30 minutes late, so not too bad. We were trying to make sure we got to Phnom Penh before Chris’s parents arrived on the plane to join us for a few weeks (!!!). They were bound to be tired so it’d be great to have gotten some food and drink from the shops before they arrived to save us going out again if they weren’t up to it. The drive was billed at 7 hours in a minibus, and we were getting a big local bus so we expected to be on the road for at least 8 hours, if not 10 ☹.
It was indeed a long drive through almost flat landscapes. As in Thailand, most of the roads are lined with shops and houses, even outside of the towns, so the views of the farmland and countryside in between are short lived.
We made a couple of stops, the first beside a couple of food stalls selling some local snacks. Evie was delighted to see that they were selling steamed buns, so we grabbed one. Two to three hours later we pulled up into one of the roadside restaurants which seemed to have suddenly cropped up in large numbers – possibly as this is the mid point between Battambang and Phnom Penh? With no indication of time, we went to the toilet and followed the locals in selecting a dish from the four on offer. Largely guesswork again, we picked three of them and were sat down with some rice. We’d barely finished when the driver beeped his horn and we were all back on. The servers hadn’t even had a chance to get around to us to charge us yet! The bus waited though. Twenty minutes to wee, order, eat and pay – a very quick lunch stop!
Two hours later we stopped again for a quick toliet break and the chance to buy more snacks. People boarded the bus selling what looked like flower seed pods. Sunflower seeds perhaps?
Whilst it seemed that we were making excellent progress into Phnom Penh during this middle section, once we neared the capital the traffic stepped up massively and progress became very slow. It took us most of an hour to cross the city and we arrived at around 6pm at the bus stop. A short ramorque ride later through the crazy traffic and we were at the apartment. We didn’t have as much spare time as we would have liked there, but at least we were first!
Keen to get some supplies in, we walked the 300m to the supermarket and bought some beans on toast for dinner and porridge, milk, fruit and muesli for breakfast the next day. How we miss these foods! As we walked back into the apartment building they were already here, checking in at the reception desk, having made great time out of the airport. Cue an emotional reunion with hugs all around and some catching up over beans on toast and beers. Then an early night for all.
Day 148: Phnom Penh palaces and temples
Keen to show Chris’s parents some of what our life had been like for the past few months, we set off in the morning in a Grab ramorque into town. The ride was fun. We’re pretty used to SE Asian roads by now, with the organised chaos, but it was new for Steve and Marilyn. We had fun watching their faces as we made crazy lane changes and squeezed through small gaps. The roundabouts are particularly fun as there seems to be no idea of giving way, everyone just goes and tries to avoid each other. It seems to be the cars that have to give in more to the bikes as I guess it’s harder for them to know everything around them and be sure they’re not going to run someone over. Luckily the roundabouts here are all pretty busy, so the traffic moves slowly.
We were heading to the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda here, but arrived about 5 minutes before it closed at 10.30! Apparently, it’s just open for a few hours in the morning and afternoon. Our driver had gone, but another came to talk to us about our options i.e. where he could take us for the next few hours until the palace opened again at 2pm! His price seemed a little high compared to what we’d paid in other places, but we wanted a smooth day today so went with it.
He drove us North and to the Golden Palace, which was totally empty of visitors, but very impressive and totally golden. It’s newly built, so there’s no history here, but everything here is golden, and the inside is covered in brightly painted murals so it’s a visual treat.
The Golden Temple is on a fairly large site, with some other, older, temples also here. It’s all a bit of a mishmash, with semi completed structures and piles of rubble around.
After this, we were to go straight back, but our driver offered to extend to another couple of places and across the river on the ferry for another $10. We went with it.
Our next stop was the Monkey Temple. Reviews online were very mixed, and the temple itself turned out to be nothing really worth the journey. As soon as we pulled up though, some kids came running over to us, and it seemed that our driver was feeding them bananas. In actual fact, the bananas were for the monkeys and the children just liked to join in!
We walked through to the back of the temple area with our driver, where he started calling and clapping near the trees. Soon we spotted movements in the trees and some cheeky faces. These were not aggressive monkeys, and they seemed reluctant to come down from the trees, even for bananas. They came down to the lowest branches, where they took bananas from your hands, before running off to a safer place to eat them.
The kids with us were climbing the trees to try to get to them and handfeed them. Aiden passed them a banana, but Evie was still a little too traumatised by our experience in Angkor Thom to come near.
Suddenly, the monkeys all started leaping forward in the tree and calling; the boy nearly fell out! A large male monkey had appeared in the tree opposite. The boy grabbed a plank of wood and he and the girl advanced on it. As soon as it came out of the tree onto the ground though they dropped it and ran!
The monkeys scattered and we were left for a moment, until we heard some music coming from behind. A group of children, making music with two crushed cans, a couple of pieces of metal pipe and an upturned bucket fixed onto an old buggy turned up, and we were treated to a show with two of them being a lion/dragon, using a white basket as the head, and an attached orange sheet to cover their bodies as they moved around together like the Chinese Dragons in street festivals. All rather weird but very cute.
So the temple itself was not worth it, but our experiences there will be something we remember from travelling. We were glad we came.
Our next stop was the Golden Boat. Again, absolutely no-one was here, so we could wander around this odd structure at ease. There’s a tree growing in the back, but nowhere that causes any trouble. As the boat built around it or did it grow later?
As with the other sites, the temple itself was nice enough, albeit it a little crumbling. But the surrounding area was full of rubble and rubbish. We couldn’t imagine a graveyard or church grounds being in that sort of state. There’s just such a different attitude to it here.
Only a hundred metres away was the ferry port, a small ferry which can take some people and a couple of cars across the river. At this point there are four rivers converging which is pretty odd to see. Our friend the Mekong being one of them. Whilst we waited for the boat to leave, we watched the families living in the tiny houseboats along the shore, with a massive luxury hotel looming behind. A stark illustration of the difference between rich and poor here.
On the other side we were asked to walk up the steps, presumably as the ramorque would struggle up the hill with us in (and burn lots of fuel in the process). We were glad we did as a car reversed off the ferry into it as it went past! No real damage done though.
Our driver took us to a ‘cheap, local restaurant’ which was not particularly cheap by the standards we were used to, although we can’t speak for Phnom Penh in general. It was full of western people with no locals in sight, but the food was delicious and we enjoyed having an air conditioned restaurant for once (I literally cannot remember the last time I was in one!). We had fun when the girls at the end of the next table started screaming. A couple actually stood on their chairs, so we sent the kids in to have a look. There was a cockroach under the table which seemed to be injured, so Aiden grabbed it and moved it into the next room for them. They were very grateful, and he rewarded them by telling them that they fart very often (every 15 minutes??) and are a major methane contributor in the world. The things this boy knows! Haha.
Our driver took us back to the Royal Palace once we were done with lunch. We ended umming and aahing about going in as it was $10 each for entrance, kids included! Would it even be that good?? In the end we went in and they sort of assumed that Aiden was 6 and therefore free. We didn’t correct them…
The palace was beautiful, although they make it sound like you can go in some of the rooms when in fact you can only peer into one from the outside (the royal family lives here still).
In a second courtyard there are also the royal crypts, which are some rather lovely small pagodas, including the famous Silver Pagoda. One is surrounded by trees, and set up on steps like a mini mountain.
The central temple here had a model of Angkor Wat in front of it, as it would have looked when it was built, which was very interesting having just been there. Rather random though…
The outer wall is covered in painted murals, although we couldn’t figure out what the story was. Some sort of fight between brothers or old friends??
Exploring the whole site took us less than an hour though, and whilst it was nice, you can see most of it through the gates at the side. Not worth $10 each in our opinion!
Even though I didn’t think we’d agreed it, our driver was also taking us back to our hotel (he wanted to take us to some other places first but we were done). He took us to the supermarket on the way and waited for us to shop before taking us the rest of the way. I’m pretty sure he was loving the $25 we were giving him though – great for a days work here.
Our minds were on the rooftop pool, where we had a pleasant late afternoon swim before cheese sandwiches in the room and another early night.
Day 149: The Killing Fields and S21 prison
After doing a little online research the night before, we decided that Sarah would stay at the hotel with Evie and Aiden as we suspected that they would not enjoy the tours of the infamous S21 prison and the Killing Fields.
So for once, the blog writing has come down to me (Chris) instead!
We had arranged for our tuk-tuk driver to pick us up at 8.30am, so my parents and I were soon on our way to S21. I was vaguely aware of the history of Cambodia during the Pol Pot years, in that mass genocide had occurred, but was rather shocked at the extent that his reign of terror had caused. The Khmer Rouge was a brutal regime that ruled Cambodia under the Marxist dictator Pol Pot from 1975 to 1979, and which ultimately caused the deaths of up to two million people.
Under his rule, he tried to implement a form of communism that took the country back to the middle ages, forcing millions of citizens to work in massive agricultural farms in an attempt to become a fully self-dependant country. Unfortunately, most of these workers had no skills in farming, and without the proper infrastructure, tools or water supplies the ambitious targets set by Pol Pot were missed, resulting in whole families dying from starvation, disease and overwork.
Whole cities were emptied, money was abolished, religion of any sort was banned and anything “western” became outlawed, including almost all known medicines. Anyone who resisted or were deemed to be a rebellion to the cause were rounded up, interrogated and forced into one of the hundreds of special prison camps, where they would ultimately be tortured until they “confessed” all their crimes. You could be placed in these prisons for simply wearing glasses, as they believed anyone who was intellectual would be a threat to the regime!
We arrived at S21, which was a former secondary school, to be greeted by the friendly staff who offered us a choice of headsets as part of the self guided audio tour. We were also provided with a map with numbered “stops” dotted about so that you could listen to the appropriate story as you went around.
The prison (a converted school) was split into 4 main buildings, A, B, C & D, with building A listed as the main torture centre. Here you had a number of rooms with a single bed inside with a photo on the wall of a deceased victim who was found brutalised on the bed when the Vietnamese troops arrived (who had overthrown the Khmer Rouge after a series of violent border confrontations). The photos were of course horrific and showed the bodies of those who had been quickly killed before the prison was abandoned.
Moving onto building B, here you were shown more about the Khmer Rouge Regime, who was in charge and how they had come to power. Photographic evidence of workers in fields, along with children were shown, with many clearly in a poor state of health. They had to work up to 18 hours a day on a single bowl of rice porridge, with minimal time for breaks or rest, regardless of their physical state of health or age.
We also learnt about a handful of foreigners who were caught up in the madness, including an Australian man who was travelling around the world but was in the wrong place at the wrong time after being captured in his sailing boat off the shores of Cambodia. He was imprisoned here at S21 and tortured until he confessed to his crime of “working for the CIA”. After the fall of the Khmer Rouge they found his confession records where he had admitted to working for a “Colonel Sanders” from his Kentucky base, a “Major Rouse” and a “Sergeant Pepper”. He even managed to name a mysterious “S. Star” who, it transpired was in tribute to his mother – Esther”. An emotional recording from his brother who testified against the prison leader in court was heard here, where he stated that he was proud of his brother for maintaining his sense of humour even in the face of the worst possible adversity.
In Buildings C & D further records and photos are on display showing many of the 17,000 victims who were “processed” here, before they were loaded into trucks and taken to Choeng Ek, now known as the Killing Fields. Of those 17,000 of so that were detained here, only 15 are known to have survived.
After a quick cold drink, we re-boarded our tuk-tuk and were taken to the so called “Killing Fields”. This was a 30 minute drive through Phnom Penh to the outskirts of the city. We enjoyed the drive out, watching the crazy scooter drivers and how they navigate the busy traffic. I’m very much used to the style of driving here now but you could see that Mum and Dad looked a little more nervous at times!
We arrived and were provided the same style headsets and map, where we proceeded to listen to the history of this place. The site itself is not that large, and they have since erected a large memorial Stupa in the middle to help remember those who were killed here.
It was busy, with a steady stream of visitors wandered around almost all listening to their headsets, however when you took your headphones off and looked around you felt a sense of quiet and calm which was nice as nobody was really talking or making much noise.
Unfortunately, the tour itself does of course have to take you past a few of the rather nastier aspects that made this area so infamous, including a mass grave where more than 450 bodies were dumped. The ground is undulating because of the way the bodies have rotted underneath. Shocking.
The audio tour included a number of optional stories that you could listen to that didn’t form part of the main tour, including a detailed account from one survivor and his ordeal. Here we sat in the shade leaning against a wall overlooking the lake, just listening to what they had to say. The view was peaceful, but the ordeals that were coming through the headset were anything but. Truly awful stuff.
One of the more harrowing sites here is the “Killing Tree”, which was known to have been used by the prison guards to kill multiple children and babies, purely by bashing them against the tree trunk before their lifeless bodies were tossed into a nearby pit. It has since become more of a memorial, with hundreds of what look like friendship bracelets being hung on the trunk itself.
Further along the trail you then come across the “Magic Tree” which was used to hang multiple loudspeakers that played music at unbearably loud volumes just so that the sounds of terror would not be heard outside the confines of the prison walls (as it was not widely known at the time exactly what was happening inside).
To conclude the tour you can look inside the memorial stupa. Here they have placed what must be thousands of human skulls and bones that were found in the mass graves in glass cabinets, reaching all the way to the top of the building.
All rather ghastly, but to me anyway a sad yet fitting reminder to any visitors of the atrocities that occurred in just those 4 years. The ending message from the audio guide being that they want to ensure that no further genocides or cruelty like this ever occurs again.
We returned to the hotel feeling subdued and emotionally drained, but pleased that we’d made the effort to come and see and hear for ourselves.
(Handing the reigns back to Sarah now – my fingers hurt from all this typing! 😊)
Back at the hotel, the kids and I had spent the morning on schooling and were just getting hungry and thinking about leaving without the others when they arrived back. Lunch was a quick, cheap and yummy affair at the Thai restaurant next door.
We had planned to go in the pool again in the afternoon, but it was being cleaned when we tried, and we were given mixed messages about whether it would be available at four or not until the following morning. Chris and I were having a minor panic about our Vietnam visas as we had decided to get the eVisa which you apply for online, but the website said it would be closed for the 6 days over the Chinese New Year i.e. the 6 days before we were crossing and only two days from now… With the visa’s claiming to take up to three days to process we thought we’d better get on it, but had the usual issues getting pictures to load up in the correct size and orientation.
In the evening we took a ramorque to the night market, where we perused the stalls. The Phnom Penh market was actually a genuine one for locals, so the stalls were more clothes for locals than souvenirs. At the back there was a food area, with mats in the floor in the centre and various stalls around the edge where you could pick the meats and veg on sticks that you wanted cooked for you. Oddly, most of them seemed to be selling the same thing, whereas we’re used to street food stalls offering a whole range of things. Quite a safe introduction to street food for Steve and Marilyn 😊.
If you’re wondering why Evie’s arm is in a sling we’re not really sure! She’s been complaining about it hurting on and off for a couple of weeks now, and it seems to be getting worse, which is all rather odd. Possibly it’s from when she fell from the hammock (although she didn’t mention it for days after that…), or she sprained it on the kayaking day in Don Det?? Biking in Banteay Chhmar made it angry again and now it’s just sore. We’ve decided to try immobilising it for a couple of days to see if that helps…
Back home to bed again. It really is nice to be in a lovely room like this, with air con, comfortable beds and a proper bathroom. Our Christmas present from Steve and Marilyn – thanks 😊.
Time to take the parents off into the jungle! Our next stop is the community tourism operation in Chi Phat. Click here to go back to our time at Banteay Chhmar with it’s temple ruins and friendly locals if you missed it…